Other SW and S Asian carriers have had or have Europe-US service. For example, Kuwait Airways is dirt cheap quite often but few seem to want to fly them; and yet they make the news every so often when Israelis resident in the US and/or UK fly Kuwait Air but face "problems" with the carrier refusing to accept Israeli passports for travel due to home country laws even when transporting between US and UK.

Other SW, South Asian and Central Eurasian countries have also had or have EU-US service.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kagehitokiri

agree, especially with their "business" being ME connections/arrivals

i wonder if some flights / discussion is just marketing (US is helping..)

Some EK and QR flights are being sought by national airport operators/owners in Europe that want to have a better case for US CBP pre-clearance after the airport owners/operators have already bought into trying to pursue the scheme. I'm speaking of some Northern European airports which want some of these SW Asian carriers to fly non-stop to the US from Europe.

Some EK and QR flights are being sought by national airport operators/owners in Europe that want to have a better case for US CBP pre-clearance after the airport owners/operators have already bought into trying to pursue the scheme. I'm speaking of some Northern European airports which want some of these SW Asian carriers to fly non-stop to the US from Europe.

im sure airports/etc are showing incredible load numbers, but are any realistic?

more pre-clearance is another thing (the list is endless) that would be great

we are talking about transatlantic flights between US and EU (7 total including only 1 ME, and NZ is a 'special' case)

Right, now you've added in enough additional parameters to make your point valid, back to the original question. Why does a lack of fifth freedom routes in the past mean there is no business case to do it in the future?

Emirates was neither well-known nor respected in the US/EU until relatively recently. Nor did they have the range of partnerships with other airlines providing feeder flights that they have today. Even ignoring the fact they clearly had other priorities back then, there is absolutely no logic behind the claim that they haven't done it in the past ergo can't do it in the future.

Right, now you've added in enough additional parameters to make your point valid, back to the original question. Why does a lack of fifth freedom routes in the past mean there is no business case to do it in the future?

Emirates was neither well-known nor respected in the US/EU until relatively recently. Nor did they have the range of partnerships with other airlines providing feeder flights that they have today. Even ignoring the fact they clearly had other priorities back then, there is absolutely no logic behind the claim that they haven't done it in the past ergo can't do it in the future.

you changed subject away from transatlantic

am i missing legal aspect? is each route approved? even if so, we are not hearing about proposed routes. are we?

we are talking about transatlantic flights between US and EU (7 total including only 1 ME, and NZ is a 'special' case)

It is more than 7.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kagehitokiri

im sure airports/etc are showing incredible load numbers, but are any realistic?

more pre-clearance is another thing (the list is endless) that would be great

I'm not in a position to judge how realistic or not some of the airport owners/operators' numbers may be, but I do know of governmental data shortfalls -- but that is from intelligence/security operations side, and not the same as data for commercial business pursuits -- which would indicate to me that if numbers were honestly collected and meaningful, they would undercount the historical demand.

I'm no fan of more U.S. CBP Preclearance than is already in place, but my voice is a voice in the wilderness despite not being in the wilderness. I don't want earlier check-in cut-off times for my US-bound flights than is already the case.